Live Blog: H-P Reports Quarterly Earnings

At her first earnings call for H-P today, CEO Meg Whitman repeatedly emphasized that the company was gearing up for a “rebuilding and reset year.” “No surprises,” she promised at one point.

Paul Sakuma/AP Photo

That reference, of course, was to the surprise that greeted investors on August 8, when Whitman’s predecessor, Leo Apotheker, announced his intention to eliminate the company’s nascent tablet business and explore spinning off H-P’s PC business, among other things.

Still, investors may have wanted some ‘surprise’ today. The profitable kind. Instead, the company posted fourth quarter revenue of $32.3 billion and earnings per share of 12 cents.

Yes, the numbers excluding charges and other items were slightly better than expected, but fourth-quarter earnings overall dropped 91% on write-downs and weakness in its PC business.

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